New Cruzer in SoCal

[Mark B]

My oldest daughter jumped on my conversion bike the other day and has been riding it all around the neighborhood the last few days. She jumped on it and took off like she'd been riding a FWD for years! So now, she's excited about cycling again; wanting to go on rides with me. She's claimed the bike as her own, now. I'm arguing with her about it, but the frame was originally hers when the bike was new. The kit is mine, but she says that's what I get for mounting it on her bike.

I may have to seek legal council.

Mark

 

[Peder Torgersen]

It seems you have some good influence! It’s good to have more young FWD riders.
Has she been reading your ride reports?

Peder

 

[JonB]

Mark B wrote: My oldest daughter jumped on my conversion bike the other day and has been riding it all around the neighborhood the last few days. She jumped on it and took off like she'd been riding a FWD for years! So now, she's excited about cycling again; wanting to go on rides with me. She's claimed the bike as her own, now. I'm arguing with her about it, but the frame was originally hers when the bike was new. The kit is mine, but she says that's what I get for mounting it on her bike.

I may have to seek legal council.

Mark

Let it go, it could be worse, it could be your car, or maybe even your PRECIOUS, your Silvio. You'd better lock it.

I think you were right the first time. The car will be next.

At least then, I'll have my conversion back!

Mark

 

[Mark B]

Peder Torgersen wrote: It seems you have some good influence! It’s good to have more young FWD riders.
Has she been reading your ride reports?

Peder

No, she get to hear them in first person.

Mark

 

[teacherbill]

A subject has been brought up, something similar to what I have been thinking. I wonder if my 11 year old son would start riding with me if I put the conversion on a 20 inch girl's bike frame. It should be low enough to the ground so that in case he does the "Arte Johnson thing" he won't have too far to crash land. If it doesn't work out I can rebuild the mongoose. Any thoughts?

 

[Mark B]

teacherbill wrote: A subject has been brought up, something similar to what I have been thinking. I wonder if my 11 year old son would start riding with me if I put the conversion on a 20 inch girl's bike frame. It should be low enough to the ground so that in case he does the "Arte Johnson thing" he won't have too far to crash land. If it doesn't work out I can rebuild the mongoose. Any thoughts?

Yeah, lots of thoughts. I wouldn't do it. I'd encourage him to ride with you, but I'd start him out on something basic. Maybe a small road bike, or something similar. I'd get him to do a few rides and see if it was going to 'stick" before you made too much of an investment. So many of today's kids would rather live in a virtual world than get out and do anything in the real world.

My kids all started cycling pretty young. My son did his first century when he was 9. He's a real strong rider now, too fast for me. The daughter that is now claiming my Cconversion used to do club rides with me. She has a nice DF bike with almost no miles on it, so if the conversion actually gets her riding again, I don't mind letting her borrow it.

Mark

 

[John Tolhurst]

teacherbill wrote: A subject has been brought up, something similar to what I have been thinking. I wonder if my 11 year old son would start riding with me if I put the conversion on a 20 inch girl's bike frame. It should be low enough to the ground so that in case he does the "Arte Johnson thing" he won't have too far to crash land. If it doesn't work out I can rebuild the mongoose. Any thoughts?

Well, Jim and Maria Parker have asked me to design a single speed with freewheel and handbrakes, for riders in the 7 to 11 age group. I'm thinking real cheap tires to keep the speed down. My son wants one, and he named it syncro the other day. I'll probably take the V1 frame and scale it down from the 27 to the 20" wheel.

 

[teacherbill]

johntolhurst wrote:

teacherbill wrote: A subject has been brought up, something similar to what I have been thinking. I wonder if my 11 year old son would start riding with me if I put the conversion on a 20 inch girl's bike frame. It should be low enough to the ground so that in case he does the "Arte Johnson thing" he won't have too far to crash land. If it doesn't work out I can rebuild the mongoose. Any thoughts?

Well, Jim and Maria Parker have asked me to design a single speed with freewheel and handbrakes, for riders in the 7 to 11 age group. I'm thinking real cheap tires to keep the speed down. My son wants one, and he named it syncro the other day. I'll probably take the V1 frame and scale it down from the 27 to the 20" wheel.

Well if you need a test subject ......

 

[Mark B]

johntolhurst wrote:

teacherbill wrote: A subject has been brought up, something similar to what I have been thinking. I wonder if my 11 year old son would start riding with me if I put the conversion on a 20 inch girl's bike frame. It should be low enough to the ground so that in case he does the "Arte Johnson thing" he won't have too far to crash land. If it doesn't work out I can rebuild the mongoose. Any thoughts?

Well, Jim and Maria Parker have asked me to design a single speed with freewheel and handbrakes, for riders in the 7 to 11 age group. I'm thinking real cheap tires to keep the speed down. My son wants one, and he named it syncro the other day. I'll probably take the V1 frame and scale it down from the 27 to the 20" wheel.

How about building the bike so there's an upgrade option to multispeeds at some point in time? All it would take would be a derailleur hanger and a few cable stop braze ons. While they may be exceptions, there are kids in that demographic that are doing lots of miles on the road with their parents. I can think of two in our club. My son did and I know there are others. I just think the bike should be built so it could be upgraded to a full on road bike.

Mark

 

[JonB]

Mark B wrote: How about building the bike so there's an upgrade option to multispeeds at some point in time? All it would take would be a derailleur hanger and a few cable stop braze ons. While they may be exceptions, there are kids in that demographic that are doing lots of miles on the road with their parents. I can think of two in our club. My son did and I know there are others. I just think the bike should be built so it could be upgraded to a full on road bike.

Why go for a deraillure and not a hub with internal gears?

 

[Mark B]

JonB wrote:

Mark B wrote: How about building the bike so there's an upgrade option to multispeeds at some point in time? All it would take would be a derailleur hanger and a few cable stop braze ons. While they may be exceptions, there are kids in that demographic that are doing lots of miles on the road with their parents. I can think of two in our club. My son did and I know there are others. I just think the bike should be built so it could be upgraded to a full on road bike.

Why go for a deraillure and not a hub with internal gears?

For one thing, a parent that was considering upgrading such a bike to being road worthy probably already has most of the bits to do it. Even if they didn't, parts could be acquired much cheaper than investing in a Rohloff. All that being said, as long as the spacing was right, you could put whatever you wanted in there, no matter what. However, if you have the front end spaced for a coaster brake, or even just a singlespeed freewheel hub, I don't think you can cram a multispeed wheel in there, period.

Mark

 

[Gromit]

Why a Rohloff? IMHO Even a cheap, basic 3 speed hub gear would be an improvement over a single speed on a kid's cruzbike.
Though I guess that you might need to pass the chain around some idler wheels to allow for TFT adjustments.
Something like a Brompton chain tensioner perhaps?

 

[JonB]

Mark B wrote: For one thing, a parent that was considering upgrading such a bike to being road worthy probably already has most of the bits to do it. Even if they didn't, parts could be acquired much cheaper than investing in a Rohloff.

Buy a used rohloff, thats what i did and it is working fine despite being 8 years old.

But naturally Cruzbike inc can not do that, and for them i was thinking they should get a geared hub for kids, since most kids bikes has a geared hub if they have gears.

 

[Mark B]

I'm just saying that if you're going to bother to build a kids' Cruzbike, you should build it so the kid can grow into it, instead of out of it. The simplest and most economical way is with a standard derailleur drivetrain wherin you are only limited by how much you want to spend on it. Most parents will opt for cheap, but if they want to go high end, then so be it. So.... You build the bike as a singlespeed, like we've discussed, but include a derailleur hanger and braze ons. It would probably take more retooling to drop the derailleur hanger than to include it.

Mark